Restraining order lifted against tribal leader

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council chairman Shawn Hendricks is no longer prohibited from seeing his estranged wife and children after a probate court judge vacated a June 12 restraining order.

STEPHANIE VOSK

BARNSTABLE — Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council chairman Shawn Hendricks is no longer prohibited from seeing his estranged wife and children after a probate court judge vacated a June 12 restraining order.

Hendricks' clean criminal history was cited as the reason for yesterday's decision.

In his testimony during the hearing in Barnstable Probate and Family Court, however, Hendricks admitted to using steroids in the past and to a tug-of-war battle over his young son on a baseball field earlier this month.

Married for 16 years, the Hendrickses have been separated since early April, and Elizabeth Hendricks has filed for divorce.

In court yesterday, she spoke of her husband's violent temper, which she says escalated over the past three years, and even more so since he stepped into the role of tribal council chairman last August when his mentor, Glenn Marshall, was forced to resign.

Federal investigators launched a probe into the finances of Marshall, Hendricks and other tribal council leaders shortly after Marshall stepped down.

"It'll be a spur-of-the-moment rage that he'll burst into," Elizabeth said. "Most of his (anger) is directed toward me."

When her attorney, Stephen Swaye of New Bedford, asked her how she felt about that, she said "scared to death."

In his testimony, Hendricks denied directing his anger toward his wife or children, but when pressed, admitted to smashing his arm through a glass door during a fight with his wife.

Elizabeth Hendricks was granted the restraining order after a June 6 incident at a baseball field; she accused her husband of screaming profanity and threatening that "I couldn't touch him but he could hurt me," according to her affidavit.

"My husband is a fourth-degree black belt and has firearms," she wrote in the affidavit. "He has a very bad temper toward me and enjoys intimidating me."

Shawn Hendricks yesterday denied saying anything to that effect, but admitted to pulling on his son while his wife tried to take him to her car.

When asked by reporters, Shawn and Elizabeth Hendricks both declined comment after the hearing.